Closure



N. F. OTANO May 6, 1952 CLOSURE Filed July 25, 1950 IIVVE VTOR A "ORA/5y Patentecl May 6, 1952 CLOSURE Nstor F. Otafio, Buenos Aires,- Argentina Application July 25, 1950, Serial No. 175,697

In Argentina'August 25,

2 Claims.

The present invention refers to closures for use in conjunction with containers such as hot water bottles or the like. i

The main object of the invention is to provide a closure for efiiciently sealing the mouth of a container of the kind referred to, the closure being of strong and simple structure so that it has a longer life than conventional closures of the same general nature. Another object of the invention is to provide a closure which will resist rough handling and will not deteriorate due to frequent contact with hot or iced water, etc. 7 In .order to achieve these and other objects which will become evident from the more detailed description of the invention given hereinafter, a closure device in accordance with the present invention comprises, a female member adapted. to be secured to the mouth of a container and provided with a perforation of gen erally tapered shape, and a generally cone-shaped stopper adapted to be inserted in said perforation, the lateral wall of said perforation being formed with annular shoulders having diameters which progressively decrease from the outer or stopper receiving end of said perforation towards the inner end thereof, each shoulder being provided with an endless groove of substantially V- shaped cross-section, whilst the stopper is provided with annular recesses corresponding in number. and dimensions to said annular shoulders. each recess having a substantially V-shaped edge adapted to tightly fit into a respective groove. Preferably, the female member and/or the stopper are further provided with means for releasable means for retaining and locking the stopper in its proper position when inserted in said perforation.

These and other features of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the embodiments illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical cross section of the closure device according to one embodiment of this invention with parts of the stopper broken away;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a modification of the closure device;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the stopper shown in Fig. 2; and

Figure 4 is a cross section similar to Figure 1 showing another simplified embodiment of the invention.

The same reference numerals have been used throughout the several figures of the drawings in order to designate equal or corresponding parts of the device.

With reference to Figures 1 to 3, it will be seen that the container, for instance, a hot water bottle, 2, comprises a female member I fixed to the mouth thereof. Said female member I is preferably made of resilient material such as rubber, hard rubber or the like; in this case it is fixed to the container by vulcanization. Two upstanding pins 3, formed with eyes or similar openings 4, through which a cross-pin 5 is adapted to be inserted are screwed into or otherwise safely secured to the upper portion of female member I and in such a manner that the aforementioned eyes are located at a given distance from the upper surface of said female member.

The female member I is further provided with a perforation E2 of generally tapered shape adapted to receive a stopper generally designated by reference numeral 13. As shown in Figure 1, perforation l2 has a relatively wide outer or stopper receiving aperture while the lateral wall recedes in a step like fashion towards the relatively narrow inner aperture whereby a number of abutments or shoulders [2a, I21), I20 are formed, the diameters of which decrease towards the inner end of the perforation l2. Each of these abutments or shoulders is formed with an endless, preferably V-shaped groove IS.

The stopper I3 is provided at the top thereof with an eye 6 which, when the stopper is inserted in perforation I2, is spaced from the outer surface of female member I by a distanceequal to that of the above mentioned eyes 4 from said surface so that eye 6 will be aligned with eyes 4 and, by passing the cross pin 5 through all of eyes 4 and 6, the stopper will be held in its proper position during use.

The stopper 1 3 is further provided with a number of recesses 8, 9, l B of generally V-shaped configuration, so that a protruding edge [4 is formed on each recess, and this edge is separated from the main body of the stopper by a groove ll. The recesses and protruding edges are so located that, when the stopper is inserted into the female member l2, the edges will penetrate into the grooves formed on the annular abutments or shoulders of the female member.

It will be seen that, if the stopper is introduced into the female member and fixed in its proper position by means of the pin and cross pin arrangement as above described, the annular shoulders of the female member and the recesses of the stopper, in combination with the grooves and protruding edges thereof, will be in sealing engagement and thus constitute a tight closure. In order to open the container it will only be necessary to disengage cross pin from the eyes 4 and 6 so that the stopper may be removed from perforation l2 of female member I-.

Figure 4 shows a simplified embodiment in which the pin and cross pin arrangement shown particularly in Figure 1 is replaced by two retaining members E5 of resilient material secured to or integral with the upper surface of the female member. I. These retaining members are located at such positions that, when the stopper is inserted into the perforation [2, the edge of the head of stopper [3 will be forced under the same and the stopper will thus be retained in sealing engagement.

In order to assure a more effective gripping action of retaining members I5, the headportion of stopper 13 may be provided with .two'fiattened portions I! so that, when the stopper after insertion into perforation I2 is moved into its proper angular positiomsaid retaining members will overlap said flattened portions and the stopper can be removed from the perforation only after it has been turned into a difierent angular position.

It will be evident that the arrangement described provides an efiective sealing closure which is more resistant during use than conventional closures of thesame general nature because screw threads and other portions projecting from the main body of the stopper at right angles are entirely avoided so that an improvement is achieved in that part of the device which is most exposed to wear and breakage than any other.

Furthermore, the V-shaped grooves l6 and edges ldprovida'due to the sharp angle, a more tortuous path for the escape of liquid so that a more effective sealing action is obtained than with the conventional threaded closures in which the threads project from the main body of the stopper at substantially right angles.

Obviously, a number of alterations may be introduced without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, for instance, instead of providing the annular shoulders i2a, I21) and I20 with annular V-shaped grooves, said shoulders may be formed with V-shaped edges whilst the recesses 8, 9, ID of stopper It may be provided with V- shaped grooves. Also, instead of making female member I2 of resilient material the stoppermay be made of said material in which case the female member may be made of metal and may be provided with suitable means for securing the same to the container mouth.

Furthermore, the stopper retaining means may be altered and, for instance, that portion of the head of the stopper which abuts against the outer surface of the female member may be of oval shape so that only in a given angular position the edge of said oval portion will underlie the retaining'members. Any of these variations and other modifications which will be evident to the experts in the art, jointly or separately, are desired to be included in the scope of the annexed claims.

I claim: 1. In a closure device for a container, such as a hot water bottle, a female member adapted to be secured to the mouth of said container, said female member having an inwardly tapered cavity, a stopper to be fittingly inserted into said cavity, the cavity wall of said female member having a plurality of uniform, annular, successive step-shaped shoulders, of which .the diameter progressively decreases from thetop to the bottom shoulder, V-shaped endless grooves in each shoulder, said stopper being provided at the outside with uniform, annular successive step-shaped recesses conforming in shape andnumber to said shoulders and with V-shaped projections corresponding to said V-shaped grooves. whereby a tight fit is'effected upon insertion of said stopper into said female member.

2. In a closure device according .to :claim 1, retaining-means to hold and'lock thestopper in its sealingposition within .the femalemember, said retaining means comprisingtwo vertical pins mounted on said female member, holesin the upper ends of said pins, an eye in the top portion of the stopper and a crosspin to be releasably inserted through said holesand said eye.

NESTOR F. o-TAfio.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS ,Number Name Date 65,857 Alexander June 18, 1867 773,345 Scheidt Oct. 25, 1904 950,387 Gordon Feb. 22, 1910 2,485,996 Atkin Oct. 25, .1949 

